Farsighted

It is not typical for your neighborhood optometrist to show up in political memoirs.

Dr. Gary Crook is cited throughout The Gentleman From Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich for helping with the election campaigns for the former House Speaker, and serving as chief of staff for Mr. Gingrich for two years.

Now out of politics for more than a decade, Dr. Crook spends his time with patients and managing the growth of 1 Hour Optical.

The 67-year-old optometrist isn't ready to retire yet, though he has partners in the two-store optical practice who will take over when he does.

One of those partners, Andrea Capps, was born a few weeks after Dr. Crook graduated from optometry school in 1972.

Dr. Capps, who grew up in Thomson, worked for Pearl Vision and Lens Crafters before joining Dr. Crook in 2007.

"I saw this practice start up, I heard about it," she said. "I never heard he was looking for somebody. The stars aligned and he gave me a call."

The other partner, Keisha Williford, has been working with Dr. Crook for three years.

"My mother-in-law was a patient of his," she explained. "Now she's mine ... She told me about him. I was working in Brunswick, (Ga)."

Dr. Crook called her before she had a chance to call him to inquire about working at 1 Hour Optical.

Dr. Crook, who started his career in Atlanta, worked for America's Best and Eye Glass World in Augusta before deciding to get back into business for himself.

In March 2003, the challenge was getting it off the ground. Now the challenge is managing growth.

"We see hundreds of new patients every month," Dr. Crook said.

Dr. Crook said representatives for frame and contact lens companies comment about how quickly the optical business has grown.

"We're blessed to have good growth during the recession. I think it is 15 percent over last year," Dr. Crook said.

The original location at 217 Bobby Jones Expressway has been expanded since it opened. In November 2006, a second location opened at 2115 Windsor Spring Road.

The noisiest area is in the back of the Bobby Jones location, the lab where the lenses are made.

Dr. Crook said 1 Hour is the only lab in Georgia or South Carolina that can do Varilux lenses in-house. The no-line bifocal lenses are usually made by Varilux itself.

General Manager Mary Johnson said 1 Hour Optical's process to prove its capability to Varilux took a year.

"They checked our quality coming out. They canvassed the town for our reputation," Ms. Johnson said. That was in 2007.

Between both locations, 1 Hour Optical has 28 employees.

The growth is not from offering one-hour service on lenses, Ms. Johnson said.

"We can do all the advertising in the world. Every time we look at the survey report, it is word of mouth," she said.

Most new patients come through referrals, Dr. Crook said.

"We take care of patients and they appreciate it. And they come back. And they send people to us," Dr. Crook said.

Dr. Crook said he can see 1 Hour Optical opening three or four more locations in the next decade, but that will likely come under a new guard.

The running conversations in the office are either about politics or tennis, another of Dr. Crook's loves.

Although Dr. Crook was involved in politics as a campaigner and chief of staff for two Congressmen, he has not run for office, though he has thought about it.

"He was a born politician," Dr. Williford said.

Midwestern eyes

Dr. Crook was born in 1942 in Hutchinson, Kan., but he was raised in Nebraska, in Superior, a small town of 2,000 people on the Nebraska-Kansas border.

His uncle, an optometrist, had an office 40 miles away in Belleville, Kan.

"My mom would take me down there and he would examine my eyes. I needed glasses since the time I was 4. I was real farsighted and (had) a lot of astigmatism," Dr. Crook said. "I can't study or read without my glasses."

He said he selected optometry as a profession because of his uncle, who is still living.

Dr. Crook was drafted into the Army in 1964 after a year of college. He served two years in the infantry, stationed in Fort Lewis, Wash. Though it was during the Vietnam War, his unit was never sent to combat.

"They went to Vietnam six months after I got out of the Army," he said.

Dr. Crook said he was in his university library in Nebraska in December 1966 and picked up an edition of Life magazine. There were boots and helmets lined up on the cover. Dr. Crook was shocked at the caption.

"It was my company," he said. "Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, 4th Division. They had a whole platoon of guys wiped out in one night patrol. Some of those guys were guys I knew."

The G.I. Bill paid for his college education, and a little of that money carried over to optometry school in Memphis, Tenn., at the Southern College of Optometry. He painted houses on the side to make money.

Dr. Crook graduated in 1972. "I was the next-to-oldest guy in my class."

Then 30, Dr. Crook didn't have a job. The chairman of the college's board had a practice in East Point, Ga., and was introduced to Dr. Crook by the college's president after a conversation on his future.

"He bought me an airline ticket and I saw the practice," Dr. Crook recalled. "It was the only offer I had, and I took it."

Seven years later, he took over the practice through a buyout.

He met his wife, Katherine, at the office. She was a young widow with two sons.

"She had all these people trying to fix us up anyway," he said.

She brought her oldest son in for an exam.

"I couldn't take my eyes off her. I called her up that night," he said.

They were married after a year.

Dr. Crook met someone else at his office who would become instrumental in his life.

On page 55 of The Gentleman From Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich , author Mel Steely wrote: "Crook was so taken with Newt's personality and message that he began to accompany him as he went through the business district.

"Crook was the prototype supporter any candidate would relish. He was young and energetic. A successful professional, he knew the chamber of commerce and the business community."

Dr. Crook said in the book that he helped raise money for Mr. Gingrich and introduced him around in south Fulton County.

In 1991, Dr. Crook left optometry to become Mr. Gingrich's chief of staff in Georgia.

Dr. Crook had sold his practice to some younger doctors.

"Newt knew that I was available and he asked me to be his chief of staff," he said.

And then the state Legislature changed the district.

"They saw Newt as a threat and busted his old 6th District up to four different districts."

Mr. Gingrich ran for the House from a different district in north Atlanta. Dr. Crook stayed in Fulton County and served as the chief of staff for Mac Collins, who won in the newly drawn district.

Dr. Crook worked for Mr. Collins in 1995 and 1996.

"You don't make a lot of money working for a congressman. I was 55 years old at the time. I came back to optometry," he said.

Dr. Crook said he wasn't interested in starting a private practice from scratch, so he entered corporate optometry, joining one of the larger chains, America's Best. He had an offer over the phone to come to work in Augusta and made the move east.

It was a busy five years, he said. He jumped to Eye Glass World on Bobby Jones Expressway and lasted seven months before going back to work for himself.

"I decided that I had enough energy to do it again at 61," he said.

Without having a single client, he hired eight people for his new 1 Hour Optical.

A crazy idea

Ms. Johnson, who was a co-worker during Dr. Crook's time with America's Best, was hired as the general manager.

"Do you remember the first thing you said to me?" she asked Dr. Crook.

"I have this crazy idea ... I think I can do it better. We can do it different. We can give the selection and competitive pricing, it is not a meat market. I think we can take better care (of patients). That has been the concept since we opened the door."

Dr. Crook said he was actively trying to build a patient base before they opened in March 2003. In the ilk of the grassroots effort that he used to help Mr. Gingrich in the 1970s, he went campaigning.

"I would go out every day with a huge stack of business cards. And Mary would call me when a patient came in. I'd be out handing out cards, anywhere I could find people," he said.

It is a marketing tactic he still uses. While eating out, he's likely to hand out several business cards. "Give us a try" is the mantra.

"We want them to like coming here, as much as you can make something like coming to the doctor," Ms. Johnson said.

Growth spawned the need to add doctors. Dr. Williford joined the business in May 2005, and Dr. Capps joined in November 2007. Both were later made part-owners.

Like Dr. Crook, Dr. Williford chose optometry because she had been wearing glasses since she was a child.

"I remember the impact that it made," she said. "I'm happy that I found something that I like to do."

All three doctors have a connection in going to the same optometry college in Memphis, Tenn.

Dr. Capps was working in Colorado before deciding to move back to Georgia when expecting her first child.

Dr. Crook said the partners all maintain a level of civic participation.

Dr. Williford is a member of the Augusta South Rotary Club. Dr. Capps is in the Columbia County West Rotary.

Dr. Crook is a member of two clubs.

"Every Friday is my community service day. I go to Lions Club for breakfast and Rotary for luncheon," he said.

The bi-monthly breakfast is with the National Hills Lions Club. Lunch is with the Martinez-Evans Rotary Club.

It isn't advertised, but the company also helps the unfortunate.

"It is like the Hippocratic oath, you treat people who can't afford to be treated. We do a fair amount of that," Dr. Crook explained.

At 67, Dr. Crook said he doesn't have the energy he once had, but he predicts that he'll play tennis three or four times a week once he retires.

"I'm gonna retire someday. (His partners would) like to buy the practice. We're working on all that," Dr. Crook said.

"Ready to take over when he decides to go," Dr. Williford said.

Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.